Sisterhood of the World Blogger Award

Thank you so much, Jay, for nominating me! You should check out her blog: Books By Jay, it really is phenomenal. I’ve been dying to do this tag for ages and I am locked and loaded to write down the best darn answers to any tag you’ve ever read!  So…  let’s do this thing

1.   What was the best dystiopian book you've ever read?

Now this is a very difficult question indeed because I do love my dystopian and trust me I have read a lot of it! However, if you really are going to be so cruel as to make me choose then I would probably have to go with… ‘Delirium’ by Lauren Oliver. That book made me weep all kinds of ugly. I must have cried out around 50% of the water in my body. My friend told me what happens in the other two books though and with an ending like that I can’t bear to even attempt to read them… Aren’t spoilers the worst?

2.   How many books are on your TBR shelf?

I’m quite new to this whole blogging thing compared to some of you keyboard dinosaurs out there, but I think this is like a goodreads thing? In which case, I don’t know, because apparently I’m too stupid to work out how to use goodreads. You can find mehere if you want to try and figure it out for me…

However, if you’re talking about the books in the massive wobbly pile by my bed then I have about 10! Though it is my birthday this month so with any luck, that’ll double!

3.   What is the book that you really want to read but can't get your hands on?

So, recently in the UK the movie adaptation of ‘Love, Rosie’ by Cecilia Ahern came out and my friend pointed out in Waterstones that it had this really wicked writing style! Of course, it made me want to read it right then and there, immediately. But, what with being a teen n’ all my pockets are perpetually empty and I decided that £7 was far too much to pay for this book. Luckily, my town has about a thousand charity shops so I figured I’d just hunt the book down under its old title ‘Where Rainbows End’ (cheesy, I know).

I looked for that book for hours. I swear, I must have gone into more than twenty different odd-smelling shops and bumped into enough of the elderly to have me banned from all care homes ever, but it wasn’t there…

All of this just makes me want it more!

4.   What book is your most anticipated book of the year?

I can’t wait for ‘My True Love Gave To Me’! It’s a compilation of twelve different Christmas stories written by some of my absolutely favourite authors, including the Romantic Rainbow Rowell and the Spectacular Stephanie Perkins! It’s actually already out in the shops but I can’t afford it and it’s glorious pink pages… So, I will wait until my birthday and hope with all of my might.

5.   Who is your most read author?

I actually admitted in my recent blog ‘Defending Jacqueline Wilson’ that I have read a total of 32 of her books… I honestly don’t know how I did it! I was a massive fan of hers as a kid, every time we went to the bookshop I would pick out one or two of her books without fail. My brothers and sisters were fantasy addicts and they used to get annoyed by my total devotion to something that didn’t even have a single hobbit in it.

6.   Do you have any signed books? What are they?

Ha! I wish! The authors I love are mostly American but even the British ones never hop on over to my part of the UK! I never get any chances to get anything signed. I don’t buy the signed books from Waterstones again because of price, but even if they were cheaper it’s still not as exciting as having the actual living breathing author in front of you scrawling down your name… Maybe if I wish hard enough John Green or E. Lockhart will suddenly be compelled to jump on a plane, hunt me down and write a deep personal message in the front of my book, but until then, I can only dream.

7.   Who is your favourite contemporary author?

I cannot stress enough the love I feel for Stephanie Perkins and Rainbow Rowell. Every single one of their books so far has managed to break down my floodgates and turn my eyes into some kind of Niagra Falls lookalike. They have such a beautiful writing style and I am most comfortable when immersed in one of their gorgeous romances… *sigh*

8.   What is your favourite book to movie adaptation?

Book to movie adaptations are always better if the writer was in some way involved and that is why ‘Perks of Being a Wallflower’ was so on point! Chbosky himself wrote the screenplay for the movie so it was always destined for greatness. The characters were so well cast (even if Emma Watson's ‘American’ accent was so annoying…) and it was such an emotional movie. Seriously: Read it. Watch it. Rip your heart out of your chest. And then lose the ability to feel emotions entirely.

9.   Who is the most relatable character you've ever read about in a book?

I often find it quite hard to relate to a character because obviously in fiction the situations can be so extreme. I mean, I’ve never been forced to participate in a battle for the death against 23 other teens in which I nearly die of dehydration, fire, flying bug attacks and angry dogs who look weirdly like that guy I once knew, all the while being broadcast to millions of rich costume-lovers – so how the hell can I say I relate to Katniss Everdeen? That said, I would probably say I’m a bit like a few different characters. I’m stubborn like Emily in ‘A Heart Shaped Bruise’ (though, er… not to such a murderous extent) and I’m quirky like Lola in ‘Lola and the Boy Next Door’ – my friend says I even dress a bit like her!

10. Which book that you own has the prettiest book cover?

This one! (AND it has illustrations on the inside too!) 

My Questions:

If I’m going to do this, I’m going to do this good and proper!

1.    If you could change the ending of any book, what would it be and what would you change it to?

2.    If you could dump hot noodle soup over the head of any one book character, who would you choose?

3.    You’re getting married! Choose your soon-to-be spouse, your best man, your bride’s maids and your DJ?

4.    Sum up one book with an album or playlist

5.    You’ve stole a chocolate fudge cake from the local bake and you’re about to be shoved into prison for twenty two years with one book character of your choice, who would it be?

6.    If you could ask any author three questions who would it be and what?

7.    You can attend one fictional school for an entire year, which would it be? (Hogwarts is banned from this answer because, well… duh!)

8.    Would you rather snog Draco Malfoy, Luna Lovegood or Ron Weasley? State why!

9.    If you had to get a tattoo of one characters face on a body part of your choosing, who and where would you choose? (Keep it clean people!)

10.                       You can bring one fictional character back from the dead, but by doing so you have to kill another: which two do you choose?

I Nominate:

Tika from fangirl Confessions

Anastasia from Cuddle Reads

Emily from Forever Literary

Ellen from Quest Reviews

Monica from My Island of Books

Good luck girls! 

Rainbow List of Must-Reads: Green - How To Be a Woman

This is the Rainbow List of Must-Reads: Where I review a different one of my favourite books each week! Fourth on our list we have a green book with a green cover:

How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

    

        I’ve finally worked out what I want to be when I get older. When I grow up I want to be Caitlin Moran. She is my idol; the woman is wonderfully witty with a wicked sense of humour; she’s met countless of my favourite musicians and celebrities; she had this brilliant outlook on life; and she is the author of my current favourite book – ‘How to Be a Woman’

   

         Having read everything Waterstones’ Teen Fiction section had to offer, I was wandering round the shop in search of something to fill my empty holiday hours with. I’m generally reluctant to pick up fiction from the main adult section as in previous experiences the books I have picked up have been heavy, complicated or rife with sex scenes, but after a good twenty minutes of dragging my family around every section in the shop I realise that if I don’t pick something soon they would physically remove me from the building with no book with whatsoever.

  

         Taking Caitlin Moran’s ‘How to be a Woman’ off of the shelves I was a little bit apprehensive. I don’t usually read non-fiction, it’s never been something I really enjoyed, but as I rushed for time I remembered all the people who had recommended the book to me and decided that it was going to have to do.

  

          I opened the book as soon as I got home and within the first few chapters had fallen head-over-heels in love with it. I’ll admit menstruation and pubic hair aren’t usually the kind of topics that float my boat, but when Caitlin Moran spoke of her own experiences with them I found myself actually laughing out loud at the wonderful honesty.  She somehow manages to speak about them without making the reader feel uncomfortable. Moran is rude – but she isn’t disgusting.

  

          The theme of the book is feminism and woman’s issues. Usually a heavy topic tackled by the more fierce women and in a slightly aggressive tone, Moran manages to use light-hearted chat and humour to teach us women that really we should all call ourselves feminists – whether we like it or not. Moran teaches us that feminism isn’t really anything to do with man-hating or aggression – as is the stereotype – but more just basic common sense. In fact, Moran was so persuasive in her argument that I suddenly found myself standing on a chair yelling ‘I AM A FEMINIST!’ at my poor mum as if in a Moran-induced trance.

           Her charming way of taking the piss out of everything managed to change my mind on quite a few things actually. I will admit that I used to be slightly wary of Lady Gaga and her extravagant outfits, but after reading about Moran’s time in a sex club with the lady in question, I was playing ‘Bad Romance’ on repeat and googling pictures of the infamous meat dress.

I have even drawn a picture of the woman in question

The book is brilliant; I loved every bit of it. I honestly cannot fault it. There’s something quite relatable about Caitlin Moran. She’s impossibly cool and she’s led this amazing life talking to amazing people, but when reading the book you kind of feel like she’s just down the road and you could pop round for a cup of tea. She just seems so genuine.

The book uncovered this womanly pride in me that I never really knew was there. After reading ‘How to Be a Woman’ a woman seemed the very best thing that one could possibly be. Feminism no longer seemed like the angry, un-attractive thing that its stereotype once presented it as. With Caitlin Moran, if you’re a feminist, you pretty damn kickass!

Caitlin Moran is the kind of author I want to be my best friend for life and her book, ‘How to Be a Woman’ gave me this new kind of self-confidence I never really knew I was missing. There were really no other comparable candidates for this spot on the list.

You can find out more about Caitlin Moran here!

You can read the other reviews in the Rainbow List of Must-Reads here: Red, Orange, Yellow